


Prisoner Zero

by QueenPotatos



Category: Free!
Genre: Jail Sex, M/M, Rinharu Week, This tag is for you Eos, Urban Legends, also starting momo ikuya makoto and hiyori, angst with open ending, day 5 : future fish, this one is very queenish angsty be warned, yes this is a thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:22:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22018582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenPotatos/pseuds/QueenPotatos
Summary: Rin is a policeman. Where he works, there's a prison with only one inmate.Sousuke thinks he has a sort of unhealthy curiosity for who they call 'Prisoner Zero'.Future Fish AU, kind of.Written for RinHaruWeek 2019 Day 5.
Relationships: Matsuoka Rin/Nanase Haruka
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39
Collections: Rin & Haru Week





	Prisoner Zero

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: There is a tiny bit of gore in here but it's really short.  
> I couldn't have done this without my friends Knaps and especially Eos, who beta this for me and I will never say thank you enough.  
> Also this is harurin :)

* * *

1-

The office smelled of cigarettes, alcohol, vomit, and sweat. Aichirou sat, uncomfortably, between a whore and a man with arms twice as big as his thighs and tattoos covering every part of visible skin, smoking like he was allowed to. As a new recruit, Aichirou was told to wait until an officer came to him, but it had been more than twenty minutes and he wondered now if he was in the correct waiting room, judging by the population sitting here with him.

Thankfully he wasn’t completely alone, he was sure the redhead sitting a couple of seats to his right was from his promotion as well – at worst, they’d both be lost and late on their first day, which was better than to be alone.

Someone with a uniform called their names a couple of minutes later. He was chewing on a stirrer with an empty cup of coffee on his hands. “Boss’s waiting.”

Aichirou had to run to follow the man’s steps; Momotarou, the other recruit, was running ahead. After a minute walk past a couple of offices and waiting rooms, the man halted in front of ‘Yamazaki Sousuke’ office. Aichirou read the name twice, but before he could knock Momotarou enthusiastically opened the door.

Yamazaki was reading the newspaper with a cigar in his mouth. He eyed them severely enough to make the redhead freeze in his tracks, and that’s when Aichirou realized he hadn’t felt at ease during a single second since he had entered the police station. All he had heard so far were the tick tock of the clocks, people shouting insults, spitting on the ground. It hadn’t really been his ideal first day so far and it hadn’t even started yet.

“…and your name?”

“…Oh, me?” Officer Yamazaki had been talking to him and he hadn’t even realized, how stupid of him. “Nitori Aichirou, from the 6th section.”

Yamazaki breathed out some smoke but didn’t comment any further. Or rather he was about to when the door opened again, welcoming a man and more importantly, a box of donuts inside.

“You’re late.” Yamazaki mumbled with his cigar still in his mouth. “I hope you brought some strawberry ones.”

“No way, they’re too sweet.” Aichirou jumped when he recognized the voice, ashamed it struck him before the sight did – how could he forget this unmissable shade of red, for lack of a better word, since Aichirou was a man not so familiar with colour nuances. “Oh, hello Ai.”

“Matsuoka Rin! It’s a pleasure to meet you again!”

“How’s your uncle doing?”

“Ah, I forgot you knew about both of them.” Yamazaki said after he took a mouthful of donut. “How come I’m the one who has to take care of them?”

“I dunno, fate?” Rin shrugged and came back to Aichirou with a smile, revealing his very pointy teeth – he saw Momotarou frowning, and hushed him, he’d explained later. “Anyway, say hi to Mikhail from me.”

“Are you going downstairs?”

Rin’s smile vanished as he looked back at his partner. “Yes, and?”

Yamazaki sent him a dark glare, but didn’t say anything, took his newspaper back and raised it in front of his eyes, just enough to block Rin’s silent departure from his view.

“Don’t worry, he’ll come back.” He said nonchalantly, or felt forced to. “We’ll get moving once I finish the sports’ section.”

Aichirou and Momotarou stared at themselves, wondering what could ‘downstairs’ be, that could cast a chill between their superiors.

“How long have you known Matsuoka?” 

Yamazaki being on duty, the new recruits were eating together. Momo – they had reached the nickname level a little bit too quick for Ai’s taste, but it’s not like he had an opinion to share on that matter it seemed - was talking nonstop and gesturing with his hands so much Ai would have thought he was Italian if he didn’t already know all his family worked at the station.

“He knows my uncle, he’s a private. Uncle invited him home one night when I was younger.”

“So lucky. My brother says he’s the best.”

Rin had quite a reputation which hadn’t always been good, from what Ai remembered, mostly due to his good looks and dedication to his job, sometimes at his own expense – that diehard part of him wasn’t always regarded as a quality of his, especially when Rin had the wrong idea in mind. It was at the same time his most noble quality and his worst demon, what made everyone in the station idolize and fear him. When Rin had a goal, nothing could turn him down. Until now his instinct had rather worked in his favour.

“Yamazaki’s not bad either, so I’m not complaining.” Momo was still eating, talking and texting at the same time, not taking the time to look at Ai while he spoke. “He’s a bit harsh at first but Sei told me he has a good heart. What are you doing tonight?”

Ai frowned at the sudden change of subject. “I, um, I was planning on going home and tell my parents abou-“

He showed him his phone screen, and the last text he received. “Would you like to check what’s ‘downstairs’?” He wiggled his eyebrows.

Ai swallowed. He didn’t really want to but for some reason he felt trapped – as if he couldn’t refuse. And, what were they risking anyway? They were inside the station, right?

(‘Prison’ the screen read.)

They had been working with Yamazaki’s brigade the whole day, or rather watched them work and brought them coffee and donuts, while the more experienced officers studied three unresolved cases they had stumbled into this year. Rin was there too, a full cup in his hand he never touched while looking at the whiteboard full of clues and victims’ pictures through his tanned Ray Bans. They were talking too quietly for Ai to hear what words they exchanged that day, but there was no doubt Yamazaki trusted him and respected him a lot. Momo later told him they were best friends, which didn’t surprise him in hindsight.

Three victims, all working for the local mafia, killed brutally over the last three months. If most of them thought it was for the better, as Rin told them more than once today a crime was still a crime, and a murder was never to be left unpunished. No one deserved to die, and it was neither their job or anyone else's to play Lady Justice on their own.

Yamazaki and him were mumbling about how all of this didn’t make any sense, which did not for Ai and Momo as well but for completely different reasons.

“They questioned every single one of their contacts. No one knows who did it.” One of the policeman told them.

It left them pensive, but nothing more than this. After all, they could be lying. Someone had to be aware of it.

Night came quickly.

Momo had a flashlight and nothing more than his courage at hand; Ai walked behind him, his steps warier, his mind still wondering why he had accepted to come here in the first place. Yamazaki showed them the front door on their visiting tour this morning but it didn’t go any further than that. Yet, their curiosity got the best of them – well, especially of Momo – when Sei told his little brother there were dangerous prisoners kept under the station, it had opened the pandora box of Man’s weakness. The more morbid it was, the more they wanted to see. What sort of monsters could be living under there? How long had they been here?

Not so long according to Ai. They were just prisoners waiting to be judged, after all they couldn’t be anything else according to the law.

The walls looked like the bricks in the docks – humid, greened with moss and lichen, cold and unfriendly. There was a weird atmosphere once they’d passed the first set of stairs, the air changed into something kind of eerie and heavy at the same time. The smell of sweat, salt and seaweed invaded their nostrils, and brought back fairy tales of their childhood into their young adults’ minds – could a mermaid or a kraken come out of one of these cells? Why not after all?

Their footsteps echoed in the empty corridors. Ai wondered why the place was so unguarded. The reason appeared quite quickly after a minute of silent walk : all the cells were empty.

“Hey, this way.” Momo took his elbow and dragged him along to their right.

He led them to a most unusual cell. At the end of the corridor there was just a door, older than the common bars they had seen earlier, remnants from the cold war or something of the sort.

“Looks like the perfect place to lock in Hannibal Lecter, or Jack the Ripper.” Momo joked, but Ai held his breath as he noticed at second glance the small eye-level opening on the door, and the pair of blue eyes behind that were spying on them.

The smile disappeared on Momo’s face when he saw them too. He dropped the light.

Blue eyes shone in the dark, unblinking. They stared back at Ai’s even when he stepped back – something, some sort of magic force told him to run, the air became difficult to breathe and-

Footsteps joined them.

“Rin, is that- _What the fuck are you two doing here!?_ ” A voice roared behind them.

They had forgotten Yamazaki was on duty. He turned on the lights, revealing the real colours behind the prison – and it looked a lot less mystical then, only dirty grey walls, urine and mice, and when Ai looked back at what had intrigued them from the beginning, a banal door with a pair of missing eyes.

They never came back together there after that night.

* * *

2-

“Rin is…Look, I know he’s your best friend. But there’s something off with him. Has always been. Just dunno what yet.” Sei lit his cigar, smoke leaked from the tip and filled his room. “There’s a hint of obstinacy in his eyes at best. Some call it craziness.”

“He’s just got fire in his heart. Some people are afraid to get burned.”

“But he is different, has been since he couldn’t solve that first murder and you know it.”

Sousuke watched the way his glass of whiskey fit in his palm, thinking three was perhaps a bit too much at this early hour in the afternoon. He spoke, mostly to himself. “He’s not the same since he brought that guy downstairs.”

Sei was too busy making rings with the smoke to care to listen.

Rin leaned on his wheel, waiting for the appropriate moment to come off his car. He was parked in front of the ‘Distant Ocean', a seafood restaurant that had opened a couple of months ago, with his uniform and never without his Rayban. In summer, his hair was always held in a low ponytail with the tip of it tickling the back of his neck, especially when he lazily waited for his turn to come.

He didn’t particularly appreciate seafood, meat was his personal favourite but he never came here for food anyway.

“Your order.”

It was him. The waiter. And assistant chief. Bluest eyes he had ever seen. Cold and apathetic.

Yet-

“Thanks. Here, you can keep the change.”

Yet Rin always noticed how his eyes never left his through his glasses, as if he could see right through them, never blinking. There was something unnatural coming from him, and Rin didn’t know if it made him feel uneasy or thrilled – perhaps a mix of both, most certainly.

In any cases, there was something. A thread. Something this guy could pull at any time to bring Rin close to him in an instant.

Rin came here twice a week for months without knowing why, and couldn’t remember when it all started. He dreamed at night, of those eyes, of salt water entering his lungs and those eyes were watching, and the moment Rin stared back, he knew he could breathe underwater.

He always woke up when he was about to though. He’d never know if his guess was true, if the blue eyed man was his saviour or an imposter.

He made a gamble on a Tuesday, went inside without his glasses, red eyes fierce and determined and hot like the weather outside. While he was on the line he stared, openly, just to see if he’d get any reaction from the waiter.

Rin went back to his car and leaned back on the seat. _He_ hadn’t blinked once as usual, but his lips had curled just a little when his turn came and now Rin’s palms were sweaty. He sighed.

This was insane and going nowhere. First he needed to figure out who this guy was, and why he was so fixated on him.

“You can’t do that.” Sousuke told him during their traditional Wednesday poker night. “It’s illegal.”

“I never said I was going to use my job to spy on him.”

“You just did. I pass.” He knocked on the table and put his two cards down. “Why don’t you just ask him out?”

“It’s not that. I barely know the guy it’s just…there’s something, I don’t know why, something uncanny and it makes me curious.”

Sousuke felt sorry for the guy; knowing Rin’s determination he would never leave him alone until Rin found out what he wanted.

It wasn’t attraction; or at least if it was it wasn’t physical. Rin liked mystery more than anything in the way that they were challenges, asking nothing but to be solved. Sousuke could say whatever he wanted, this was nothing more than a new puzzle, a chase, his latest passing fancy before something else, more thrilling, came into his life one way or another.

There was definitely something behind those eyes. Being the colours, the shape, the intensity; his subconscious was on alert, he just needed time to figure out why.

He was visibly bored when Rin came the week after. His face was turned to the sea, eyes fixed on the line of the horizon and it was all it took for Rin to feel like he wasn’t really there. His elbow rested on the counter, face cupped in his palm and he looked so nostalgic, so homesick that the words came out without him thinking.

“Do you like to swim?”

No one had ever stared at him the way the waiter did that day.

Haruka was an excellent swimmer. This was a fact Rin would have liked to learn not at his expense. And his presence was even more powerful under the water, another bizarre tidbit that piled on the list of mysteries that was this guy. Haru – ‘call me Haru’ he had said – had insisted they went to the local swimming pool when the sea was just a couple of feet away, and Rin let him do as he pleased. It was better to study a specimen in his chosen environment after all, where Haru would behave as naturally as he could.

He was just the same as the Distant Ocean; kind of cold and …distant, for lack of a better word. As if he wasn’t really there on the same planet.

But when they swam in the water, it was all Rin could feel. Haru. His pressure on his limbs, he felt it enter his lungs when he breathed, invaded his thoughts the moment he jumped in the pool. He lost, not by much, but his surprising defeat didn’t bother him as much as Haru’s aura and its effect on him.

And with it, the shape of a theory took form in his mind.

“Haru!!! Haru! I’ve heard you went swim- Oh, hello officer Matsuoka.”

Rin had met Tachibana Makoto a couple of times during his duties, mostly because he worked on a convenience store that got robbed almost once a week. He waved, a bit warily since the situation was kind of …comical? Unexpected at least, and when he looked back at Haru for a better explanation, he wasn’t surprised to see him staring back already, ignoring the other guy completely.

“It was a good swim.” He spoke, then walked to the edge of the pool where Makoto offered him a hand. “We should do it again.”

“Haru…”

“It’s okay Makoto. It’s okay.”

Rin joined them, a towel in hand, drying his hair. Makoto did most of the small talk while they exit the building – how he met Haru, who went to his shop every day, he asked about Rin’s job, about the weather, the sea and all the things they could have had in common. Haru never opened his mouth, but just like in the water, Rin could practically feel him on his skin, and especially his eyes on the back of his neck.

It was oppressive, stifling, the air he breathed got hotter and thicker in his throat and his legs wanted nothing but to run away – and his instinct was never wrong. There was something off with this guy, he thought as he turned around to witness just how right he was, and that’s when he saw them, blue eyes shining in the shadow like jewels.

At that moment Rin realized he should have been scared. But thanks to another mystery only he knew the secret of, locking gazes with Haru felt like diving from the top of a cliff.

The thrill won over.

* * *

3-

Rin had always been good at swimming. His father taught him when he was very little.

It was what saved him when the boat sank, they told him.

Rin was with his father that night, the wind was blowing and the waves had caught them by surprise. His memories went blurry with time, sorrow and lack of oxygen but there were always the same images that flashed in his mind when he was paying enough attention, like a never ending warning of how close he had been to die.

There was the lighting, painting the image of sailors screaming, of his father and his eyes full of worry looking for him.

“Boy, hold on!”

A lady had tried to save him from falling but his hands were small and drenched with the crashing waves. Their hold slipped and he fell.

There was the feeling of cold water on his skin when they both fell from the boat. He remembered when he lost his father’s hand and sank, sank, sank.

He was lacking air, his lungs were burning, so were his eyes.

When he opened them, blue eyes were staring back-

Rin woke up with a start, sweating, his hand extended in front of him. What was he trying to hold onto?

* * *

4-

During Ai’s first night duty something …strange happened.

He told Momo he said ‘strange’ for lack of a better word, because he honestly couldn’t quite put his finger on what had made him uneasy.

Yamazaki had asked for a cup of coffee; Ai was walking from his office to their lounge when he noticed the door going downstairs was slightly open. Piqued by his curiosity and their first trip to this forbidden place, Ai hesitated a whole minute before pushing the door open himself. Which was in hindsight a pretty bad idea since he didn’t bring a flashlight with him.

Trying to be discreet, he didn’t turn on the overhead lights – and he found it odd they weren’t already – and waited until someone’s steps betrayed their position. Ai gasped, it was on the right hallway, the one with the prisoner with the shining eyes.

His feet walked on their own. It was like an invisible force calling him. He didn’t remember all the way to the door but just the moment he stopped and faced Rin, or rather his back.

Rin was leaning on the door, his forehead against it, staring inside the cell.

He turned around and the spell broke. Ai couldn’t think of an excuse for being there and, frankly, he couldn’t feel his legs anymore.

“Who’s there?” Rin stepped away from the door. “ Oh, Ai. What are you doing here?” He didn’t sound too upset and so, Ai replied honestly.

“I have no idea Sir. What about you?”

The answer didn’t seem to shake Rin one bit, as if he was expecting it, or rather, understood what it meant – what Ai felt. “I’m checking on Prisoner Zero as you can see.”

“Prisoner Zero?”

“Yeah, Sousuke didn’t tell you about him?”

“I’m afraid not, Sir.”

Rin seemed pleased with what he heard. They walked to the exit before Yamazaki missed his coffee too much and found out about their excursion.

“Can I ask you something?”

Rin nodded.

“What has he done to be kept here?”

He was the only prisoner there. 

Rin turned his head and gazed to where the door was supposed to be, a hundred meters away, as if he was looking for something, as if he expected to see them, the shining eyes, even from this distance.

“He saved my life.” Was all he said before they walked back to the surface.

* * *

5-

“Rin, Tony’s dead.”

Rin put down his coffee on Sousuke’s desk. He couldn’t say the news were a surprise, after all when doing Tony’s job something of the sort was bound to happen anytime. Tony had been his informer for a couple of months, but Rin had known him for years.

Sousuke wrote his name on his board, and then another. “It’s the second one.”

He dropped a file in front of Rin : all the information, the coroner report, where they found the body …everything sounded a bit too familiar.

“And we still have no clue?”

“Negative.” Sousuke had his arms crossed in front of his chest. “Do you think you can help us on this one? They were both working for Kisumi after all.”

“A lot of old sailors had no choice but to work for him when they shut down the harbor.” But Kisumi had been quiet these past weeks, perhaps his casinos and bars were profitable enough this year? In any case, Tony hadn’t kept on with him for a long time, which meant that either Kisumi was really settling down or that Tony had changed sides. “Did we question Kisumi yet?”

“And what for? We have nothing to link them to this bastard.” Truth was Kisumi was a wealthy man, and a public celebrity, they couldn’t do anything without solid proof. Sousuke cursed, they were stuck. 

“I’ll go talk to his family.” Rin took his cup of coffee and finished it in one go. He grimaced, “This is really disgusting.”

“Coffee always tastes bad when a good man dies.”

Rin stopped by the swimming pool after he left Tony’s house, his shoulder still dampened by his wife’s tears. Haru was soaking in the water, his back against the edge. He waited with his eyes closed. Rin undressed as usual and joined him.

Entering the pool was like penetrating into Haru’s domain entirely. Haru was in every drop of water; things hadn’t changed from the first time they had swum together but this time, Haru’s presence in the pool was welcoming him inside, Rin could practically feel the warmth and happiness surrounding him as he dived closer to where Haru rest.

“Rin.” His eyes were smiling more than his lips when he welcomed him, but soon he saw the darkness enveloping Rin like a curtain of shadow around his heart. “Did something happen?”

Of course he couldn’t speak of his job, especially not in a public place like this but he sure needed a distraction, another mystery and whirlpool of emotions.

Sometimes Rin wanted to run away from the pool. He knew he should – he _must_ – because at all times, the way Haru stared, what the water told him, the worried eyes of his friend Makoto; they all screamed, shouted, that this, what they had, what they kept doing – dancing around each other – it wasn’t healthy. Haru looked like he could eat him alive if he wasn’t too careful. The water wanted to swallow him all, to keep him forever within its wall.

Yet Haru was never rude, or dangerous. Rin always got out of the pool in one piece, and each time it felt like he had gambled his life with some superior force – or was it with Haru himself ? – and won, each time.

“Wanna race me?” He said with a cocky smile, a new bet, but one he knew he couldn’t win. Distraction. He needed to stop thinking too much.

Haru won, but so did Rin. His skin felt like burning, his heart was beating so fast, muting any other thoughts he could have had except for the thrill, the thrill, the thrill and nothing else. Rin was panting, and he watched Haru catching his breath as well, started at his parted lips, wondering what it would cost to lose to Haru on a different field.

He wondered why Haru never tried anything. He had never stopped staring at him for _months_ , from the very beginning and yet –it was turning him crazy. He kept dreaming of his eyes saving him from the flood.

Was he missing something?

“Do you want me to drop you at the restaurant?”

“No it’s fine. I have to go to Makoto’s place to help him clean a bit. His parents are coming.”

“I can drive you there then.” Rin repressed the urge to take his arm and lead them to his car, his fingers burned. His throat too, as he waited for Haru’s reply.

Haru looked like he wanted to do everything but go home, or any other place – his eyes were screaming and suddenly Rin wondered if he was clever enough to have stored condoms in his car.

“Okay.”

Okay he said.

The drive back was calm and smooth. Rin talked, Haru hummed, and smiled and it felt just as good as a race between them. Maybe he was, actually, falling a bit.

The third victim had, as the two previous ones, her eyes ripped out of their sockets. She had been found in the port in a fishing net, drained from her blood.

Rin was there when the body was found, he had received a call from a passer-by, currently being taken in charge by psychologist. He knew her, she was working in one of Kisumi’s bars – a cleaning lady, those who held most secrets.

Sousuke and him went to the coroner themselves to hear about their report. All wounds had been made by hand – especially, the eyes were taken manually.

“This is disgusting.”

Rin inspected the body, ignoring Sousuke’s conversation with the coroner to concentrate on a little detail – a tattoo on the inner wrist, a small but very recognizable one, an anchor with three fishes swimming around. He’d seen it before. He’d seen this person before.

_‘Boy, hold on!’_

Her hand had felt warm in the tempest.

Rin sat Sousuke’s desk, facing the three victims and their portraits. He knew the two who had been on that boat with him and who had miraculously survived. What did Tony said about this already? Just like Rin, he had woken up on the beach, unharmed.

A quick research on the first victim confirmed his fear : he had been on his father’s boat as well and had apparently made it back to land.

“Not a lot survived, as you unfortunately know.” Tony’s wife gave him a box her husband had kept after all these years : they were old pictures where Rin saw his father, smiling, and letters Tony had written to other survivors.

“It was so long ago. I think most of them are dead now. You’re the only one left alive.”

Rin lied in his bed, an anti-stress ball in his hand that he threw on the ceiling then caught back. Three victims working for Kisumi, three victims that were on the same boat as he was so many years ago and had survived.

Why?

Why did they survive, why were they dying now? Why their eyes?

Would he be the next one on the list?

“Rin.”

Blue eyes shining in the depth of the sea. 

“Rin, open your eyes.”

The salt burnt his cornea, the boy with blue eyes was cupping his cheek under the water. He was smiling.

“You found me at last.”

Haru kissed him. Water filled his nose, his throat and lungs but it didn’t burn, not like his lips, his skin, his chest was. Water filled him. He woke up on the beach, alone and unharm-

Rin woke up in sweat.

The next day he brought Haru to his cell.

* * *

6 -

It had been a couple of months. Aichirou was accustomed of the noise now, of the dirt, the spit, the insults and lack of any kind of respect or hygiene in the station by now. He was learning a lot, with the best cops in town – Yamazaki and Rin were the best pair he could have hoped for – and even things why Momo were going nicely, or he could say he was now used to his candid but wild energy.

It had been a couple of months and still no one wanted to share anything they knew about Prisoner zero.

He had asked everyone, they refused to answer.

“Maybe they really don’t know.” Momo told him, he had even texted his brother about this. “Bro says you should ask Rin. Did you?”

Of course he didn’t, not after what he had seen downstairs. He had already asked anyway, and someone who saved a police officer had nothing to do in a cell so either it was a lie, or he did something really terrible in order to do so.

He had tried to ask Yamazaki once, and judging by the cold shoulder he received for days after that, it would be unwise to try another time. Why did nobody care for a guy who’s spent more than three months in a cell? Was this even legal?

“Matsuoka charges him with affront or such trivial things to extend his stay. At least, that’s what my bro told me.”

“But why?”

Momo sent a text, they waited in silence, something rare enough for Momo to be pointed out.

“…He says they are waiting for others charges. Wait, what kind of charges?”

After another sleepless night, Ai decided to ask the main interest party, because why not after all?

He took his first opportunity during lunch break, while everyone was away or too busy to care about his destination and went downstairs with a knot in his stomach.

He now knew the path to Prisoner zero’s cell but the place had lost all its aura during the day. They were few people wandering in the corridors, cells filled with a couple of bad boys and drunkards lying on the ground, hungover. Ai ignored them, as they ignored him; his eyes were set on his goal and he didn’t stop until his feet halted in front of the archaic door.

He knocked. No one answered.

“…Hello?”

Blue eyes appeared behind the bars. “Do you have saba?”

“Saba?”

“Mackerel.”

Ai blinked. “…No?” Of course not. Who did he think he was? Where did he think he was kept in? This was not a hotel!

The blue eyes disappeared inside the cell. “Hey wait! I have to ask you something!”

“No saba, no answer.”

“I’m not sure you’re in a position where you can negotiate!”

An hour later Ai was in the line at the convenience store with only despair in his eyes and a couple of mackerel cans in his arms. He hadn’t looked more pissed or regretted his life choices more than when he paid cash for all this crap. The cashier sent him a benevolent smile, but even his gentle green eyes couldn’t reach past his terrific mood.

The walk back to the cell destroyed half of his pride but in the end it didn’t bother him; he had known for a while that his ill curiosity would be the death of him – well, death was perhaps a strong word but-

“I killed people.”

Ai dropped the bag he had been holding with the couple of cans he hadn’t had the chance to share yet. Prisoner zero was eating ‘saba’ from the can, had opened it with his hands alone and did not paid any attention to anything that happened around him. Ai had asked, and he got his answer, but somehow it was not the answer he had been hoping for.

This man.

A murderer?

And Rin was taking care of him? Had been saved by him?

“I’m still hungry.”

Prisoner zero had a couple of fingers outside the bars, waiting for another can. Ai watched the hand, those white and lean fingers, wondering if it was that hand that was used to kill, and suddenly a shiver ran down his spine. He walked back to Yamazaki’s office in silence, his eyes unable to focus on anything else but his feet.

Yamazaki frowned when he saw him sitting in his chair.

“Why do you have a can of mackerel in your hand?”

The can fell on the floor.

* * *

7-

It was starting to get dark, and chilly. Used to swim in warm waters, Ikuya couldn’t stand the shore, and even more for what he was forced to witness – but it’s not like Haru gave him a choice, again.

“You know it’s not gonna last?” It wasn’t even a question, he knew Haru knew better than everyone they knew, because he had been there before, had felt and experience all this suffering and pain and dryness.

Ikuya watched from his place, his head resting against his arms that were crossed on a rock , as Haru twisted and groaned with herculean pain on the beach. The nerves from his newborn legs must be connecting with each cell, they were told it felt like ‘pins and needles’, but Ikuya had no idea of what these objects actually were.

Would he ever be tired of it?

A couple of years later proved him wrong. Haru was still, stubbornly, using legs to move on land. It was more than last time, but again,

“It won’t last.” Ikuya warned him again, “Queen Albert is asking for the sacrifices.”

Haru couldn’t get back into the water without being turned into foam again, so he was giving him the cold shoulder from the beach. He was looking for something. Ikuya saw the man perhaps a second too late to see his face, but he didn’t miss how Haru’s changed. This wasn’t going to be good.

Haru didn’t want to come back.

But one day he’d have to, or else…

Water ran through his fingers, from his fingers. From his skin. There was foam on his palms.

Then he dirtied them with blood, and after when Haru washed them they kept dry again.

“Something changed in him.” Ikuya was rumbling in the depths of the ocean. He had been since the last time he saw Haru – the last time he got ignored. Today Haru was eating what humans called an ice cream with the redhead officer and he had had something on his face that still made Ikuya uneasy. “I think this human changed him.”

“But he’s part of the sacrifice.” Hiyori said, looking into the pearl in the oyster he lived in. “It had to end no matter what. You shouldn’t worry too much about it after all. Haru will always come back. He has to.”

The third sacrifice came the day after. Queen Albert had calmed down, but for how long?

“It’s time.”

Haru shook his head.

“No.”

And from the tone of his voice, Ikuya knew there wouldn’t be any more deaths.

Haru was coming back.

Foam was coming from the palm of his hand. Haru starred, immobile, his back leaned against the cell’s hard door for hours, watching the water fall from his hand to the floor, wondering when someone would notice the puddle escaping his prison.

His time had come.

* * *

8-

“Rin. I want to swim.”

Rin rolled his eyes and closed the door behind him. “You’re lucky enough I get you food. Here.” He threw the bag on the bed. “Makoto sends his regards. He’s worried.”

Haru stared back to show he didn’t care, then his eyes set on the cans – they shone with something candid only a child could have and Rin’s heart ached at the sight.

Then Haru took a can, the tip of his fingers turned into hard scales and tore the opening apart. Mackerel fell on his hands and he ate all of it in one go before opening another, licking his lips when he was finished. 

Then he looked like an animal.

Rin sat on the bed. It was just as uncomfortable as everything else the prison had to offer – cold, humidity, rats, food, solitude – and he wondered how Haru could handle such a situation without turning crazy. Because Rin clearly was starting to lose his mind each time he came here, because Haru never tried to deny anything – be it the murders, or-

He ran a finger on his shoulder, glittering skin. The tip got wet.

“Are you really turning into foam?” he asked, his voice barely audible. The sheets were wet. All the cell was filled with puddles.

Haru didn’t say anything – didn’t deny it again – but Rin was used to it by now, Haru had never been a great conversationalist as he was himself. But he had his own way of showing emotions, of opening his heart. His head fell on Rin’s shoulder delicately, the tip of his hair brushed past his neck.

“Does it matter?”

Rin snorted by surprised. “Why wouldn’t it?”

“Because I’m still here.”

Meaning he wouldn’t always be. 

And right now Haru was warm, solid, clinging on him like his life depended on it, as if Rin was the only thing he wasn’t totally ready to let go of. Rin tentatively put his arm on his shoulder, securing his place as to say he wanted him there, and nowhere else.

Haru leaned in, even went further – his mouth flirted with the crook of his neck, his hand undid his button and went inside his uniform and suddenly, even if Rin was drenched with sweat he had never been hotter today.

“Haru-wait-Haru! Wait a minute for god sake!” They had never been intimate before; to be honest the direction their relationship was taking – if it could even be called that way – didn’t surprise him at all, not with the way Haru behaved, not with the way his body responded to this, but still! There were rules! A certain decency, a certain …romance! “We should probably talk a little-”

They had so much to say, because Haru never denied, never explained and Rin had nothing to do but guess what was running inside that mysterious mind of his, behind those mesmerizing blue eyes. Right now, as it had been the case for a certain time unfortunately, Haru wasn’t in the mood to open his heart and share his secret. He pinned Rin against the hard mattress, his cap falling on the floor when his head hit the cushion. Suddenly, despite the humidity the air was hot and dry, just like the silence only interrupted by their cool breathing. Rin couldn’t look away. A drop of water fell on his face and ran to his lips. It was salty.

“I’m not really in the mood to talk.” Was all he said before he finished crushing Rin under his weight. His arms circled his head, hands ended up tangled in red hair while Haru brushed his open lips on Rin’s skin, from his collarbone to his chin and Rin couldn’t breathe. He had been anticipating this moment for ages, for entire months in his head, wondering when Haru would do something, never thinking he could have been the one initiating anything – what exactly – then he turned his head, asking, waiting for something more of those lips. Haru obliged, harshly. His lips tasted of the sea, and it was like he could breathe under the water again.

Haru’s licked his bottom lip with hunger, his hands going down on his side before getting rid of Rin’s uniform. Not wanting to be inactive and loose to Haru in any way, Rin woke up from his daze and looked for the zipper on Haru’s back to put him fully bare in the blink of an eye. Haru kept kissing him, like his life depended on it, opened mouth and sucking lips. It was certainly not the best kiss he had had in his life, but it was surely, the more intense, the more insane – they were in jail for god sake! And Haru had, he had, he…

Haru stopped. Drops of water kept falling from his face to Rin’s, or perhaps some were coming from the corners of his eyes. “What’s wrong? Don’t you want this?”

Rin blinked, how could he- “No! I mean, yes, of course I want you. I thought it was kind of obvious.”

“Kind of.” Haru made fun of him with his hand running down his stomach to his groin. How could he be so nonchalant about this, about everything?

“I just. I’d like to know why I really want this so much…”

Haru halted, his mouth closed to his ear. Rin shivered when he breathed. “Have you wanted this as long as I have?”

They locked they gaze again, time seemed like the last of their problems. Rin replied with a kiss, decided that, in the end, perhaps it wasn’t really the time for words. They could come later. They could come after they hushed the blaze in their heart. 

Haru was extremely gentle, which wasn’t quite surprising but for a moment Rin had wondered how things …worked for Haru, usually. It turned out Haru, apart from his sharpening fingers and abnormal shining eyes, had everything a human possessed, and it seemed to be functioning beyond Rin’s expectation. His fingers, wet from his own disintegration, opened and lubricated his entrance with ease. Rin couldn’t help but shake every time Haru touched him, every time he caressed his sensitive skin with the tip of his nails or lips, leaving behind drops of water on his body. Haru bit on his neck when he put his third finger in, leaving Rin gasping for air.

“Rin,” Haru captured his lips, continuing to move in and out of him vigorously, “Are you ready?”

Having lost his voice, Rin could only nod to give his consent and he closed his eyes, awaiting. How come they hadn’t done this before? Everything so perfectly in place, the way Haru touched him, the feeling of his hands, warm and wet on his skin – it was delightful, it burned and ached and felt incredibly good all at the same time.

Haru raised his leg, put his hand behind to arc the small of his back, bent just so he could assault Rin’s lips again before entering him slowly, swallowing every single one of his moans as he progressed deeper. His thrusts were messy, powerful, and after a while they couldn’t keep on kissing properly. Haru lost himself inside Rin, mouth wide opened and panting against his skin. They didn’t care about hushing their voice at this late hour, no one would hear them – Rin groaned each time Haru hit deep inside him, water pouring down his face. Haru was, literally, raining on him and when Rin opened his eyes, he swore his eyes were bigger, his skin smoother – his face, younger.

He opened his mouth but Haru silenced him, with his finger. He must have seen the worry in his eyes. He kissed his forehead. Not now, it meant, now wasn't the time for words. Rin came soon after, Haru followed shortly and collapsed on his torso. Water streamed from his hair and fell on Rin, on the mattress, and then on the floor.

He could have heard the drops falling if he were able to. But his mind was elsewhere – far, far away, in a place filled with endless possibilities, a pool of seawater without borders. He was floating aimless, Haru pushing him by the waist. He sometimes left soft kisses on his belly, his eyes never leaving his – never blinking, and they were as blue as the sky above their heads. It felt right. It felt like heaven.

Haru caressed his hair, leaving them just as wet as his – they stuck on his forehead and temple and water flowed down his neck, already drenched with his sweat. Rin was still trying to catch his breath. He hadn’t felt this good in a while.

“I’ve been looking for you for a while.”

Haru rested his head on his torso. It seemed like he felt like talking now of all the time, when Rin could still see flashes of light on the ceiling that were definitely not really there.

“When I felt you in the water, I knew I had to save you. I was so happy to see you again.”

Rin was still catching his breath, and it took time to put all the pieces in place. He had had the – impossible? – idea that Haru was the one behind his survival, but had been too much of a coward – too scared? – to asked directly. Yet something was odd. Again? Did it mean Haru had seen him before? But when then?

“You really don’t remember, Rin?”

Haru leaned on his arms, his face overlooking Rin’s and then their eyes met again. And then he knew there was something missing, a piece of a memory he saw in the reflection of Haru’s eyes but couldn’t find in himself.

“I made a pact with Albert. He ordered me to come to land and claim back the lives that I saved and were to return to the sea, return to him.”

“Who is this Albert?”

“Our ruler. He controls the water.” Haru gazed at his legs. “He gave me these in exchange of your lives. I’ll only get back alive if I return the four of you.”

Rin ran a finger on Haru’s thigh and stopped on his knees. “Is he the person who’s turning you into a municipal swimming pool ‘cause you’re a bit reluctant to kill the fourth one?”

Haru let out a small laugh, which was rare enough to be pointed out, especially when the situation didn’t ask for it. “Kind of. I was forbidden to go back into the sea before, he would turn me into foam if I disobey him.”

“Why did you come here, to the land? Why did you make that pact and promise to murder people?”

“You kill fish, cows, others animals. How is it any different?”

Rin couldn’t find anything clever to counter his argument, partly because right now, Haru looked so young, so pure and delicate with the moonrays reflecting on his face. It made his eyes shine brighter, with a different shade of ocean blue. He really didn’t belong here. He never did.

He caressed his cheek, his palm got wet. “Does it have to happen like this?”

“Unless I kill you and eat your eyes, I’m afraid this is not giving me a lot of choices.” His fingers rested on his temple, threatening to brush past his lid but they never moved. 

“But you wouldn’t do that. You always knew it would end up like this, didn’t you?” Rin caught Haru’s hand and pressed it against his cheek. “So why accept it in the first place?”

Haru’s hand felt hot against his skin. He looked pensive; Rin knew he had an answer already, Haru had known from the very start but it seemed he wasn’t sure on how to deliver this truth.

“I wanted to see you.” He was looking at the floor, anywhere but at Rin, “It was more important than anything.”

“Haru.”

Rin pulled on his hand to force their eyes to meet. He knew it was there in the back of his throat, he had felt it in his bones, inside him, every time they swam together, a truth he had been too afraid to face until that moment when he could feel Haru was, literally, slipping through his fingers.

“I love you.” He breathed, and Haru’s hand froze under his touch. “I love you still, no matter what you did, no matter what you are.”

Rin saw his face distorted, his eyebrows raised and eyes shone but no tears came out. Streams of water were already coming from every part of his skin from the tip of his forehead to his little toe.

“I’m sorry.” Haru leaned forward and kissed him tenderly. “I’m so sorry I did all this to see you. I’m sorry I have to go.”

“Do you love me then?”

Rin held his breath waiting for the answer, because after all that happened, it was the only thing that mattered.

“I do.”

Haru hid his face in the crook of his neck, and it felt like breathing under the water again.

Rin woke up with a start when water filled his mouth as he was merely trying to breathe. He leaned on his elbow; the cell was filled with water up to the bed and some was escaping under the door, meaning people would come to check in any minute now. He had to get out of here quickly, even if he didn’t really want to leave Haru like that he-

“Haru!”

The sight tore his heart apart. Haru was curled into a ball at his side but his body had shrunk, he didn’t look older than twelve. His eyes were closed, and he didn’t open them even after Rin shook him for a long minute, only groaning gibberish. He looked pale, his lips so hot the night before were chapped and dry, almost white. Under his eyes were dark circles that weren’t there before.

“Haru please! Talk to me!”

But it was no use, Haru was in a haze where his voice couldn’t reach him anymore. Water, he thought, he needed water.

Rin took his uniform soaking at the end of the bed and took Haru in his arms. He walked barefoot on the floor which had literally turned into a swimming pool – did all this water come from Haru? He didn’t really understand the logic in this, but somehow he knew he had to turn him back to the sea, where Haru truly belonged.

Rin ignored the looks the rest of the station gave him as he ran, drenched, with a half opened uniform with a naked and unconscious kid in his arms. It was still early, the sun was up but the lights were still on, only a few cars rode on the streets. Rin headed to the closest beach he knew, not thinking about what Haru told him until the water reached his knees.

What was he going to do now? If Haru touched the sea, he’d turned back into foam.

“It’s okay. Don’t look so sad, Rin,” Haru talked, his eyes still closed. “We will meet again.”

Pearls of water fell on his face, joining the constant flow coming from his skin, as if all the water of his body was slowly returning to the place it was born, where Haru belong.

He grasped the hem of Rin’s uniform. “I’ll look for you. Wait for me, Rin.”

With his tears blurring his sight Rin advanced nonetheless, each step into the sea bringing them close to the departure. He stopped barely before Haru’s toe touched the surface.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you around then?” His voice was strangled with nothing but sorrow and pain and came out so low Rin feared Haru didn’t hear him correctly. But it was no use anyway; Haru was asleep. His voice couldn’t reach him anymore.

Rin held him in close one last time, crushing his bones with his grip. “Goodbye Haru.”

The moment he lowered Haru’s frail body to the sea and his heels touched the surface Haru dissolved into foam, leaving nothing but empty air and a broken heart behind.

Rin stood there for a long while, listening to the crash of the waves reaching the shore behind him, the wind blowing against his face and playing with his hair. He wondered, as his tears were slowly drying on his cheeks, where Haru was swimming now. Could he already be back to the shore, carried by the waves? Or did he come back to the depth of the sea where they first met after the storm? Rin breathed in deeply. Everything smelt like him, like the sea, salt water.

Haru was everywhere.

He could feel him in the water, just like when they were swimming in the pool, he could feel him in the sea. 

Rin fell on his knees and then he dived. He opened his eyes underwater and suddenly it was like he was staring at the brightest blue eyes he’d ever seen, and they were smiling back.

* * *

9 –

Ikuya was playing with a fork in his shell, bored more than anything, bored like any other day of his life. Hiyori was resting, his arms curled around his pearl.

And then suddenly it happened. Like a cry in the emptiness, a flash of light in the dark. Ikuya dropped the fork, his eyes widened.

“Haru’s back.” Ikuya murmured only, because he couldn’t quite believe it.

Hiyori lazily raised his head and gazed up to the surface. “Oh, you’re right.” He said without any emotional enthusiasm, then rested his head on his pearl again. “But for how long?”

The sea offered limitless possibilities.

  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Eos this is where I humbly ask you to be my waifu, if you say yes you'll have wine and bread and wool for the rest of your life also harurin angsty fic if you want é_è  
> (jk jk I know we're already married)  
> Thank you for all the hard work you put into this and I have a thought for all the commas you tried to erase or add but which I chose to ignore. You're a jem I hope you know that. (You are gold, and, silver-er-er)  
> Lov ya <3  
> ([My twitter <3](https://twitter.com/doctor_queenie) with more rinharu/harurin fics for rinharuweek)


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